I've been neglecting this blog. This is June and July!

 So I realized that since I was giving Tia a summary of my week each week in a letter with pictures, I wasn't motivated to keep this blog up. My Tiny Tia is home now, so I thought I would do a few posts to fill in some holes, and then just move forward with it from now on. I like having an online record of what's happening in our lives. The big deal this summer of course was the catering. I remember last year at this time being kind of lost, and it is so nice to feel so fulfilled now. Catering is hard hard work. You earn every penny and every bit of every tip you get through physical and creative labor. It isn't an easy buck. But, when you have a table that is beautiful, and people are making yummy noises it is one of the best feelings on earth. This job in June though? I had a few technical difficulties and I remember thinking about our friend Julianne on the beach in Hawaii at the time and wondering why in the heck do I do this?! At the end I was back to happy and fulfilled, but the middle was a little hard.

 The reception was outside, and you can't control weather. It was a super hot day, and the garland the clients wanted me to use on the tables was all dried out. The wind kept going crazy, and at one point it blew the flames of a chafing dish to the side and CAUGHT THE GARLAND ON FIRE. I somehow kept my head and pulled it off the table and stomped on it before it got too out of control. But on fire? That seemed a little above and beyond what I usually deal with! 

 We had big tall heavy glass vases full of branches --the bride wanted a natural foresty look, and a microburst of wind blew one of our vases over and flooded one of our chafers. We had to throw out a full round of sauce. So fire and flood. It was a crazy night. But the bride was beautiful of course, and the mother of the bride very gracious and kind. I feel like we fixed our snafus quickly enough that the guests weren't affected much.

 One wonderful thing about this summer was we became foster parents to some chickens. Our neighbor got some younger chickens to add to her flock and the older ones were beating up on them. We took them and their coop for a while to help eat up our grasshoppers. I was surprised how much affection I developed for them. 

 The yard was beautiful this summer, but it seemed extra attractive because these little ladies were walking around exploring in it all day. 

 We did get one family trip in, a couple of days at Flaming Gorge. We rented rafts and floated down the Green river from the dam down to Swasey's ramp. I hope that was where we stopped. There was a boat ramp at least! It took a few hours each time. 

 we had two big rafts, and a little banana boat. 

 Jeff and I did the little banana boat for most of the time. I loved it but started feeling guilty hogging it. So did Jeff and he kept trying to talk different kids into switching with us. More did on the second trip down. 

 This was our little camp site. I was kind of proud of us for camping. We are not the best at getting camping to happen I'm afraid!

 I forgot. This was a big part of our trip down. The teenage boys delighted in squirting the rest of us with these water shooters. When it was hot it was kind of nice, but when the cloud cover came over us I got a little crankier about it!

 There is a tiny museum at Flaming Gorge overlook that gives a spectacular view of the reservoir. We kind of fell in love with the sweet older couple running it. 

 But the best thing about the trip was cousin time. These relationships are so valuable. Grateful for my extended family.

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